I birded in Anchorage today, at the Campbell Creek Estuary Natural Area, Cuddy Park and home. I’m coming back to my usual birding world after nearly a month of Alaska island birding.
At the Natural Area were a couple of Black-capped Chickadee mixed flocks. Photographed were: Black-capped Chickadee, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Brown Creeper and Downy Woodpecker. There also were both kinglets and a couple of Boreal Chickadees in one of the flocks. The only sparrow in the area was in a Golden-crowned Sparrow in the open field and I did not find any warblers.
Out on the estuary flats was a single distant bird, a perched Peregrine Falcon.
At the cattail pond near Cuddy Park was a single inquisitive Ruby-crowned Kinglet.
As I was beginning to write this blog post, I noticed a small flock of flitting birds in our back yard birches and went out to check them out – eight young White-winged Crossbills apparently munching on birch seeds and talking quietly as they flitted from tree to tree. I had been worried that I would not see one this year, but this winter looks like it will be a crossbill winter.
297 species so far
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